Conveyors for moving particulate material, such as stone, gravel, sand, and the like, are known in the art. Such conveyors, commonly called “stone slingers”, generally comprise a thrower belt mounted on a truck, the truck having a storage hopper for holding the particulate material. Particulate material is dispensed from the hopper on to the thrower belt and then transported along the thrower belt to be deposited in a desired locating remote from the truck.
Particulate material on the thrower belt has a tendency to bounce around and be thrown off in a premature and/or erratic manner. To control the flow of particulate material on the thrower belt, an endless belt positioned above the thrower belt may be used. Such an arrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,076 issued Jun. 5, 2001, U.S. Pat. No. 6,615,976 issued Sep. 9, 2003 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,695,125 issued Feb. 24, 2004. While use of such an endless belt has improved control over particulate material on the thrower belt, there remains a need for an improved belt, particularly for such a use.
Various types of endless belts for various purposes are known in the art. For example, United States Publication 2002/0175055 published Nov. 28, 2002 discloses a conveyor belt having V-shaped grooves for transporting particulate material. This belt is designed to actually carry particulate material, hence the troughing of the belt, and would be poorly effective in a control apparatus for a stone slinger. U.S. Pat. No. 6,371,280 issued Apr. 16, 2002 discloses a conveyor belt having “wavy” flights for use on a crop baler. This belt is designed to grip a bale of crop. If used in a control apparatus on a stone slinger, the “waviness” of the belt would detrimentally affect object control as it would permit objects to escape off the sides of the thrower belt and objects would collect in several regions rather than just one. U.S. Pat. No. 6,644,463 issued Nov. 11, 2003 disclose a conveyor belt with two flights that are laterally spaced apart thereby having a gap in the middle. Such a belt is designed to carry objects, not control objects from above. If used on a control apparatus for a stone slinger, this belt would allow objects to slip back through the gap thus losing throwing effectiveness and control. Thus, the aforementioned belts are not well suited for use on a control apparatus positioned above particulate material for controlling particulate material on a thrower belt of a stone slinger. Furthermore, these belts, and other conveyor belts like them are flat on the underside and do not have means on the underside to permit engagement with rotational elements.